Matty James was part of the City squad that earned promotion out of the Championship a decade ago but should be fit to try to halt their current bid this Friday
Former Leicester City favourite Matty James is set to return to fitness to take on his old side this Friday.
Bristol City captain James has missed the past five games with an Achilles injury, but is on course to make his comeback in thed 12.30pm kick-off at Ashton Gate on Good Friday, when Enzo Maresca’s City look to resume their promotion push with a win.
James, now 32, played a big part for City the last time they were promoted a decade ago. The Robins’ manager, Liam Manning, sounded confident that James would be able to return for the Easter programme. If he does come into the 11, he may replace City icon Andy King, who made his fourth start of the campaign in the 2-0 loss to West Brom before the international break.
“They’re still on track,” Manning said of James and fellow recovering midfielder Joe Williams. “Jamo is a little bit ahead of Joe. Jamo is in full training today. It’s his first full session back in, so we’ll see how he goes. Hopefully by the end of the week, we’ll see them.”
Bristol City are in a tough run of form, having won one and lost five of their past six matches. However, of those defeats, only one was by more than a single goal. If they can defeat City on Friday, they would knock them out of the top two if Ipswich beat Blackburn later in the day.
Manning said: “We look at the division, it’s so tight, it’s so difficult. It’s probably the hardest Championship I’ve seen when you look at the sides that came down from the Premier League but also the sides that came up from League One. There were some big sides and some big budgets that go with that.
“It’s a terrific opportunity on Friday, after two weeks to reflect and work, to go and test ourselves against a team who are in the position they’re in and rightly so. We want to have a right go and compete.”
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